Politics Edexcel Unit 6, Route B

I'm just looking to blag the knowledge that I have already, which consists of:

Labour party aren't socialist.
All parties are essentially liberal.
And the Conservative party have abandoned Thatcherite principles.

Reply 23

palm tree

so revising this for the 1st time now/tonight

link with the recession i suppose

any predictions for questions on socialism/nationalism?

Reply 24

I don't know about predictions because I can't get any of the Unit 6 past papers on the Edexcel website :sad:

I hope they ask something about New Labour not being socialist.

Reply 25

narc

Gemma_08

I don't know about predictions because I can't get any of the Unit 6 past papers on the Edexcel website :sad:

A lot of the questions are recycled, just being phrased in a different way.
But it's basically these questions:

Liberalism in the UK:
To what extent is the Conservative Party a Liberal Party?
Is the Modern Labour Party really a Liberal Party?
Each of the major UK embraces its own form of Liberalism- Dicuss
The UK is a poor example of a liberal democracy. Discuss.
To what extent do the Blair government's constitutional reform reflect the ideals of political liberalism?
To what extent have the major UK political parties been converted to the cause of constitutional liberalism?

Socialism in the UK:
To what extent has the Labour party abadoned Socialism?
The Labour party has abandoned socialism but has yet to find an alternative ideology- Discuss.
The Labour party has remained faithful to its core values but has changed the way it achieves them- Discuss.
To what extent is the labour party still committed to social democracy?

Conservatism in the UK:
Have British Conservatives entirely abandoned One nation ideas and embraced Thatcherism?
The Conservative party has struggled to abandon its Thatcherite heritage- Discuss.
The Conservative Party now places it's commitment to social inclusion ahead of support for the free market- Discuss.
Has the labour party found a third way between capitalism and socialism?

I haven't typed up the "repeat" questions and the Nationalism ones because I'm not doing it.

hope this helps :smile:

Reply 26

narc

A lot of the questions are recycled, just being phrased in a different way.
But it's basically these questions:

Liberalism in the UK:
To what extent is the Conservative Party a Liberal Party?
Is the Modern Labour Party really a Liberal Party?
Each of the major UK embraces its own form of Liberalism- Dicuss
The UK is a poor example of a liberal democracy. Discuss.
To what extent do the Blair government's constitutional reform reflect the ideals of political liberalism?
To what extent have the major UK political parties been converted to the cause of constitutional liberalism?

Socialism in the UK:
To what extent has the Labour party abadoned Socialism?
The Labour party has abandoned socialism but has yet to find an alternative ideology- Discuss.
The Labour party has remained faithful to its core values but has changed the way it achieves them- Discuss.
To what extent is the labour party still committed to social democracy?

Conservatism in the UK:
Have British Conservatives entirely abandoned One nation ideas and embraced Thatcherism?
The Conservative party has struggled to abandon its Thatcherite heritage- Discuss.
The Conservative Party now places it's commitment to social inclusion ahead of support for the free market- Discuss.
Has the labour party found a third way between capitalism and socialism?

I haven't typed up the "repeat" questions and the Nationalism ones because I'm not doing it.

hope this helps :smile:

Oh that is very helpful, thank you!

I've decided against the nationalism ones too. I'm thinking that I will probably do socialism/conservatism in the UK.

Thanks again. x

Reply 27

'to what extent do the UK parties took on liberal ideas?
I know how each party has kind of taken liberal ideas can anyone give me exmaples on how Labour and conservatives hasn't please?

Reply 28

jstar357

'to what extent do the UK parties took on liberal ideas?
I know how each party has kind of taken liberal ideas can anyone give me exmaples on how Labour and conservatives hasn't please?

Labour hasn't in that it hasn't:
> remained with codified const. even though brown wanted a uncod.
> First past the post system
> Parliamentary sovereignty still largely remains with executive,
- executive chooses judge for judiciary,
- however introduction of supreme court in uk in october 09 so it is liberalish
> Electoral dictatorship
> Unelected institutions
- pretty much labour hasnt committed to half the reform it promised in 97, e.g. still fptp system, devolution only to an extent, willingness to sacrifice civil liberties in the name of national security - anti terror/ id cards,
> labour reform is too pragmatic and not radical enough, dont support enough modern liberal principles slightly conserv/socialist
> There is HRA act but can be redeemed at any time as exec is completely soveriegn
> freedom of information act is limited, only after 30 years and not all it ever/ will ever be released.

Conservatism:
neo liberalism is liberal to an extent,
> support of free market
focusses more on classical liberalism and utilitarianism, so therefore not liberal in the sense that it rejects welfare social equality etc.
Main reason it is anti liberal is due to NEOCONSERVATISM - social authoritarianism
Even though Cameron isn't 'new right' he is just a glorified puppet of thatcher in a way as he is new right, but in a disguise

last bits kind of my hate for conservatives.. hope any of that is relevant thats just off the top of my head so dont know if its helpful..
xx

Reply 29

Thanks

that was great help.
would you say labour has gone back to the left, reflecting on a return to social deomocracy or would you argue no it's because of pragmatism
or could you argue it's a bit of both, reflecting Browns, left wing routes and when opportunity has come he has been pragmatic and gone back to what his known?
I'm just stuck on how to argue it :smile:

Reply 30

Well blair moved much more central but still obtained many liberal and socialist principles. But he became more presidential when he became leader, pretty much disregareded cabinet, preferred one on one meetings in order to push through much easier, He also was less liberal in his foreign policy campaign
Brown was initially more liberal as he favoured codified constitution, he just been unlucky with not enough support to inniate constitutional reform, he certainly wanted to, whether he would is another story,
But brown is certainly a tiny bit more left than blair's labour becuase he ultimatly favours more social reform but is similarly just as pragmatic and therefore illiberal..
So they are both reasonably applied to pragmatism, but Brown advocates reform more but just can't do it due to his inpopularity - tie in you need referenda for constitutional reform to be truely liberal, was that what you were getting at? Tbh i need to touch up on that aswell haha

Reply 31

With a socialism question, are you guys going to be focusing more on Blair or Brown? Or is it about average, because despite the amount that you could write for Brown, Blair seems to have a lot more to write about when arguing.

Reply 32

That was a liberalism question asking how UK parties are liberal, but there isn't a great deal you talk about brown as he has really been gifted with much accomplisments, defintly mention him but Blair does have a lot of content, pretty much varies depending on the question

I should really start revising rather than just posting on here..

Reply 33

Ah right. Thanks.

Yeah, me too.

Good luck with it tomorrow anyway x

Reply 34

Tom deCool

Well blair moved much more central but still obtained many liberal and socialist principles. But he became more presidential when he became leader, pretty much disregareded cabinet, preferred one on one meetings in order to push through much easier, He also was less liberal in his foreign policy campaign
Brown was initially more liberal as he favoured codified constitution, he just been unlucky with not enough support to inniate constitutional reform, he certainly wanted to, whether he would is another story,
But brown is certainly a tiny bit more left than blair's labour becuase he ultimatly favours more social reform but is similarly just as pragmatic and therefore illiberal..
So they are both reasonably applied to pragmatism, but Brown advocates reform more but just can't do it due to his inpopularity - tie in you need referenda for constitutional reform to be truely liberal, was that what you were getting at? Tbh i need to touch up on that aswell haha

No I was thinking more on the line of a socialism question...like to what extent has labour followed ideological "third way"...would you say no...as Labour is shifiting back to left......or would you say yes as they are using left wing policies because of pragmatism
p.s. would you argue pragmatism is part of the "third way" or just a general thing.

Reply 35

Maybe I didn't explain myself properly, my fault hehe
Well I mean..would you say labour government now reflects social democracy, or would you say it is a pragmatic reponse and not reflecting abolishment of economic regulation.
Or would you argue Brown is more left wing and the current situation as meant he has returned to his natural order and route from pragmatism and ideological routes?

Reply 36

Well im not actually doing the socialism question, but i think labour is still rather central in comparsion to old socialism which you need to compare it against, the bevanites - old labour = mix between socialism and social deomocracy
The 3rd way does allow for socailist aspects such as communitarianism and social justice, bu tnot others such as comon ownership and egalitarianism - more modern liberalism if you understand?
New labour was no longer a socialist party as it could not be a tax and spend party due to new rights progessive taxation - as that had such populist support they couldnt return to old policies - therefore had to take more pragmatic stancee
e.g. Brown as chancellor abolishing the clause 4 of labour constitution etc. they had to use different ways to generate money from tac to increase public spending
Im kind of iffy on socialism though

And stupid question but we only have to asnwer two questions right?

Reply 37

Yes just two :smile:

so is uk a liberal democracy can you say yes but not the best example

Reply 38